Saturday, January 15, 2011

Somali Women Complain about Life under Sharia

(Reuters) - Women living in areas controlled by Somalia's Islamists say they are increasingly the target of more draconian rules meted out by the rebels bent on enforcing their ideologies.

In the latest decree by the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group that governs most of southern Somalia, women in the seaside town of Kismayu have been banned from carrying out barter trade with the male crews of ships calling at the port.

The women have also been told they cannot shake any male's hands in public, travel on their own, sell anything or work in an office.

"A woman cannot be seen with a man from another country at the port. The punishment for any woman caught near the port or foreign vessels will be arrest," a senior al Shabaab commander said in a statement this week.

The al Shabaab group -- which means "the youth" in Arabic -- have in the past banned movies, musical ringtones, dancing at wedding ceremonies and watching soccer.

Many Kismayu women, mostly widowed or divorced, have survived for years solely from selling or bartering vegetables and fruits for fuel and other commodities from ship crews.

"I have three children and raise them from the little I earn from exchanging goods at the seaport, but now I can't do my job," Hawa Olow told Reuters in a telephone conversation.

Al Shabaab has also prescribed that the women must buy and wear uniform robes that only it supplies. (Read more.)

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